


A Thaumaturgical Analysis of the 'Nerima Virus'

by Tritan



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night (Visual Novel), Other crossovers will be mentioned, Ranma 1/2
Genre: Gen, Genderbending, The Virus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-06 22:16:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20514377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tritan/pseuds/Tritan
Summary: The world of magic has been shaken to the core with the new world order established. Where all of humanity now changes sex with Cold and Hot water. Now some of the few moral mages in the entire Clock Tower are going to try and figure out how to deal with this strange new world, and what it means for humanity, and magic as a whole.And Rin will try and get a cure and fail.





	A Thaumaturgical Analysis of the 'Nerima Virus'

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Virus](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/516401) by Chris Jones. 

> Right I suppose I should explain this for people who weren't around for the fanfiction scene at the turn of the millennium.
> 
> _The Virus_ was a anime crossover short story written by author Christopher Jones and published online on June 18th, 2000. The premise was that through a series of coincidences involving a magic virus and several crossover characters, the entire world now will change sex with the application of Hot or Cold Water like Ranma Saotome.
> 
> This was explicitly a crossover premise, with people challenged to write continuations and other crossover fanfics exploring the premise.
> 
> So here I am, nearly two decades later, doing just that. There will be a lot of worldbuildng fudging to make the incompatible settings work. But hey, this is for funsies.

The “Nerima Virus” infecting humanity is, perhaps, the most major shift in the history of Humanity since the Old Gods were murdered by a giant alien. Well, maybe not that major. But it was definitely up there in the modern Human Order. Not just the massive upheaval of gender roles, but what the Virus itself revealed.  
  
The existence of life on other worlds, powers beyond their comprehension. Worlds of magic and wonder, exposed to all! Who knows how mankind will develop with this rediscovery of knowledge? Overall the Virus can be said to be a boon to people, a chance to see the world in a new way and learn just how much greater the universe is.  
  
Except for a small handful of humans. Humans whose livelihood depended on mankind as a whole **not** knowing those grand secrets of the universe. This is the story of some of those people, and how they learned to deal.  
  


* * *

  
  
It turns out that there is a secret magic school in Britain. However, it is rather different than how Hogwarts is portrayed. Rather than a whimsical boarding school filled with wonder and adventure it’s closer to an extremely stress filled collage (it’s always exam day) filled with an eclectic mix of mad scientists, complete psychopaths, and general weirdos. There are no normal people. If they were “Normal” then they wouldn’t be Magi now would they? The “Clock Tower” as it was nicknamed, was the central school of the Mage Association, a loose group of Magi who teamed up to help advance their craft.  
  
The entire Association has been on Red Alert since the Nerima Virus first began to spread. Because it was so obviously magical, especially once they noticed the water based effect. A few mages recognized the effect of Jusenkyo and wondered just what the hell was spreading that ancient and powerful Mystery about.  
  
Then the **Alien Goddess,** who by every rule the Magi figured the world ran by should **not** have been able to walk around in the Earth anymore, just… just casually announced it. Cold virus picking up a magic spell from some hapless victim and mutating and spreading. People learned that not only aliens existed, but also some form of the supernatural. Now, a layperson may not know why this is such a big deal, but if you ask someone who knows how magic works they’ll be able to tell you.  
  
A fundamental part of how any supernatural element works is it’s Mystery. The less is known about its innermost functions by people the more power it can exert on the world. People as a whole having a vague idea about magic but not really knowing if it’s real is the best way for Magi to operate. With crazy things like aliens, magic viruses, and magic alien viruses this was **disrupted** to put it mildly.  
  
The Mage Association was divided into three camps regarding this issue. A **different** set of camps than the Aristocratic, Democratic, and Neutral parties.  
  
There were those desperately seeking a method to somehow undo it. They even started beseeching Atlas to unseal their forbidden research. In response Atlas ignored them, because there are a dozen ways the world is going to end and that’s not nearly as important as people’s genders becoming more fluid.  
  
Then there were those people who thought this might lead to a new era for Magecraft. That this might lead to a fundamental change in the Human Order, allowing Magecraft to actually grow stronger for the first time since, well, ever. The ability to advance Mystery, rather than horde it until it fades.  
  
Finally there were those people who didn’t really give a damn. This was just another bump in the road and excuse me they were busy trying to find the Root and basically understand reality, or God. Or something. They swapped genders now? Who cares how does this help them reach the Root?  
  
(There was one family of Magi who could swap genders at will as part of an attempt to recreate Adam and Eve as part of a project to reach the Root by recreating the first Humans. Their opinion is not known.)  
  
Down the halls of this conflicted institution a young woman marched with determination in her step. A Japanese woman with distinctive red clothing, the other students and faculty parted a little to let her through. This was not because of her own determined steps or the murder in her eyes. Determination with murder in their eyes was pretty standard for the more drivin magi in the area. They gave her in particular a wide berth mostly due to the shorter blonde woman following behind her.  
  
The woman in red was Rin Tohsaka. Heir to the Tohsaka family and a magus who had quickly gained a reputation as a genus. She had taken the Clock Tower by storm, especially for when she had taken on a significant portion of the elder faculty, and **won**, in her goal to dismantle the Grail System that had been on her land.  
  
The Blonde woman was a major contributor to Rin’s victory. Namely because she was not actually human. She was a Servant. A Heroic Spirit summoned into a physical form. To describe what a Heroic Spirit is would take a bit too long and that’s not even starting with the dozens of exceptions to the rules so to keep things simple a Heroic Spirit is the ghost of a legendary hero. To answer the inevitable question of “What Hero is Saber?” The answer is that her name is Artoria Pendragon.  
  
Yes. She’s King Arthur. Yes, she’s a woman. There’s a story behind this. But again to save time let’s say it’s Merlin’s fault.  
  
Now that introductions are out of the way we can move on to the important bit. Namely Rin marching down the halls with murder in her eyes. Legend had it she had once killed a freshman for standing in her way. This was a bunch of nonsense. Rin had merely made him wish he was dead.  
  
Rin had a meeting to get to. She was late to that meeting. Thanks to an incident involving cold water. Which, thanks to the Nerima Virus made Rin a lot more masculine than she liked. So she had to go get hot water, and repair her torn clothing because **like hell** she was going to adjust her wardrobe due to some stupid curse. She had a style and she was going to stick with it damn it!  
  
Saber, of course, did not have to worry about water. In the first place as a Servant she could not get colds. So the virus could not infect her. And even if she somehow got drenched in Jusenkyo water her existence as a Heroic Spirit was immutable and unchangeable. So she was significantly calmer than Rin. “Your anger will not make the clocks turn backwards Rin. You should have just met-”  
  
“Saber. I will not meet **anybody** in that cursed body.” Rin said, continuing to march down the halls. Three students bolted the moment they saw her. One of them Rin knew. She made a mental note **talk** to him later. Another future victim of the Red Devil of the Mineralogy Department.  
  
Finally she reached the office of the current head of the Modern Magecraft division. A part of the Clock Tower that typically saw neglect. Since Magecraft was constantly in decline and all. But the current head of the division had increased its prestige by a fair amount. If only because he was a good enough teacher that students actually **wanted** to learn from him.  
  
Rin didn’t bother to knock. This was urgant and she was late. “Sorry I’m late I had to-” Rin stopped. “Ah, excuse me. Is… is Lord El-Melloi out?”  
  
The woman sitting on a chair in the office of Lord El-Melloi was tall. Her hair was done up in two long twin tails. She had on a red sweater and a black skirt with… wait…  
  
“Is this a joke?” Rin asked.  
  
“Rin, that woman is dressed much like you did as a teenager.” Saber offered.  
  
“I can see that. Who the hell are you!?” Rin clenched her fists.  
  
“If it’s a joke, Miss Tohsaka.” The woman said, “I assure you it’s one being played on me too.”  
  
“That wary tone.” Saber said, “Professor Velvet?”  
  
“Ah. Of course the King of Knights recognizes me first.” Waver Velvet, the current holder of the title of Lord El-Melloi, said. She stood up stretching her limbs and setting down the Nintendo DS she had been playing.. “Reines declared that I would look ‘cute’ in this outfit. I should have known she had some ulterior motive for doing so.”  
  
“Why… why are you in that body!?” Rin asked.  
  
“Like I said. It was Reines’ idea.” Reines El-Melloi Archisorte. Heir to the family El-Melloi Family Crest, Sponsor of Waver, and the biggest troll in the Clock Tower. Theoretically she was supposed to take the position Waver held years ago since she was an adult. But she apparently declared he would have to hold it until he paid off the debt he owed her family. Since the circumstances he got involved with seemed to **increase** the debt he owed at times it was commonly assumed that Waver would be her personal gopher until the end of his life.  
  
Rin desperately wished to have words about Reines’ definition of cute, but she was already late. So she cut to the chase, marching into the office as elegantly as possible and sitting down across from Waver. Saber sat next to Rin. Waver pointedly did not look even remotely in Saber’s direction. If she noticed, she didn’t comment on it.  
  
“I got the reports about the situation from my contacts in Asia.” Rin said, “There was only so much we could learn about that stupid Cursed Spring place because it turns out the locals don’t like magi.” She dropped a stack of papers onto the table between them.  
  
“Locals?” Waver said.  
  
“Various clans and tribes of people who live close to that area. It’s an isolated place in the Bayankala Mountains.” Rin said. “They’re not Magi, per se…”  
  
“The practice old ways through martial arts and meditation, and in that way invoke Mysteries without the need for invocations or mana. They instead using breathing and movement to harness their _Qi._ ” Saber said. “It’s quite impressive seeing such feats done in the modern era.”  
  
Waver had no idea what Saber was talking about, and he was doing his best to ignore the shouts of _‘Excalibur!’_ in his mind. “So what’s the issue?” So he decided to ignore that.  
  
“The tribes take a dim view of, ah, how did Sakura describe their phrasing?”  
  
“She said ‘idiot wizards meddling in forces beyond their comprehension.’” Saber said.  
  
“Right, that.” Rin said. “Needless to say one of the tribes in particular is not to be messed with. They used those Springs in the distant past to interbreed with Phantasmal Beasts and one of them is descended from **Dragons.”**  
  
Dragons are, of course, the highest rank of Phantasmal Beast and left this side of the world long ago. A Dragon existing is a Mystery in and of itself, and somebody with Dragon Blood is a Big Deal.  
  
Saber, incidentally, also has Dragon Blood.  
  
“So we’ve got a little pocket of magic in the world isolated in China.” Waver said, looking over the photographs supplied by Rin’s various contacts. Which apparently included some Yakuza? “So how did this ancient magical spring curse a random Japanese kid who ended up in Tokyo?”  
  
“We don’t know.” Rin said, “Apparently the place is considered a Training Ground for their Martial Arts? So the best we can think of is that somebody traveled their to, uh, train. And got cursed.”  
  
“I suspect there are some practitioners of similar martial arts in Japan, most likely within this Nerima Ward of Tokyo.” Saber said. “They would not need to rely on leylines. That area of Japan is poor land, magically, but it would still be enough for them to perform their Mysteries.”  
  
“You’re forgetting that Mysteries decline the more know about them, King of Knights. Martial Arts can’t easily be done in hidden workshops.” Waver spoke up.  
  
“It is just a theory, Professor Velvet.” Saber said. “Surely an academic such as yourself knows that one must not grope blindly but must make frameworks to test?”  
  
Waver opened her mouth to argue some more, before deciding that getting into a Pissing Match with King Arthur was not how she wanted to spend her day. “Very well.” She pulled out a stack of papers of her own, “I also managed to acquire a sample of the so-called ‘Nerima Virus.’ The structure is strange for sure.” The Mage’s Association did have a Microbiology Department, after all. So many Mysteries can use the strange world of bacteria and viruses to great effect. “Their structure is different in some key ways to all other viruses on Earth.” Which made sense, the virus was literally alien in origin. “The interesting thing about it is the **particular** DNA this virus carries partially mapped to human DNA. But the other half is rather strange.” Science had mostly mapped the human genome and human DNA was recognizable from other species.  
  
“Can the DNA of non humans even be detected?” Rin asked, “Most of them descend from beings from the Age of Gods where “genetics” wasn’t really a thing.”  
  
“Considering that the alien entity who claims to, well, be partly responsible for it pings off several divinity detectors I think it’s best to assume that there is at least one Divine Spirit is involved.” Waver said  
  
“But that would upturn a whole lot about what we know about, well, everything!” Rin slammed her hand on the table. “How the hell does she even exist in this world without the True Ether the gods needed to manifest!”  
  
“Rin, I understand your desire to poke holes in the official story to try and find a cure.” Saber said, “I do not think it is wise, but I understand it. If something comes up that provably contradicts what we know, that merely means our knowledge is incomplete.”  
  
Rin wished that Saber wasn’t right. This did throw their knowledge out the window, or at least proved that **something** was changing in the world.  
  
“We need to investigate.” Rin said.  
  
“Well the incident took place in Japan.” Waver said, “Didn’t your contacts investigate?”  
  
“Err, that’s part of the problem. We tried, but magi can’t come within a few kilometers of the shine where this Washu… being… lives.” Rin said, “Their magic circuits literally start burning in pain.” Right. And to try and use non magi to communicate might lead to a disaster. “We need to find Patient Zero. Whoever had the Jusenkyo Curse in Japan first, to spread it to the rest of humanity.” Rin continued  
  
“And then study them while protecting them from less scrupulous mages.” Waver said.  
  
“And then kill them for giving me this stupid curse!” Rin shouted. Before realizing she lost her composure, coughing, and smiling sweetly. “Yes that sounds right Lord El Melloi.”


End file.
